In modern dairy farm industry there are continuous research and development activities in order to improve the efficiency of various activities such as machine milking, which, inter alia, involves increased milk yield, reduced milking time, while still maintaining good udder health. Other activities include feeding, breeding, cleaning and other treatments.
A major trend in this respect is an increased degree of automation of the various activities. For instance, machine milking may be performed by controlling milking robots, more or less manually, or it may even be performed completely automated. In both cases, at least some of monitoring, controlling, regulating, maintaining, trouble shooting, etc., of the milking machine or robot, by a user or operator of the machine, is needed whereby communication between the user and the machine is realized through an input/output means, e.g. a computer screen and a keyboard, a so-called pointing screen, or through more conventional controls such as levers and knobs, of the machine. Very few considerations in respect of designing these controls, and particularly those represented on computer screens, have been taken, which have resulted in poor, often complex, designs. Computer screens often display the information in plain text and various actions are typically performed by pressing a number, often arbitrary chosen, followed by pressing a “return” button or the like.
A problem in this respect, particularly in relation to advanced complex monitoring and controlling associated with computer controlled communication, but also concerning simpler conventional controls, is that it might be a hazardous task for the user not to make any mistakes in the communication with the machine or when interpreting received information, which in turn may lead to fatal errors in the operation of the machine. The more complex the control means is and the shorter time the human user has available, the higher is the probability for the user to perceive information erroneously and/or perform erroneous actions.
In a dairy farm system, there are some particular concerns that have to be dealt with. Firstly, a dairy farm comprises a particular environment in that it includes living animals. In such an unpredictable or uncontrollable environment emergency situations may arise such as animals getting jammed in a gate or teats getting caught in a teat cup etc. In such circumstances, an activity such as opening a gate or detaching a teat cup is needed to be performed extremely rapidly. The user of the dairy farm system, being under stress, thus performs an action, i.e. the first action that comes to the user's mind which is intuitively believed to be the right action. The risk of faulty actions is in this respect considerable high.
Secondly, the problems are probable to arise for a user which is not familiar with the system such as a substitute or the like or for a user confronting a part of the system which normally is not used, e.g. a part used for infrequent operation and maintenance activities, or the like.
Consequently, in an automated dairy farm there is an urgent need of a graphical user interface for controlling various activities, which is easy to understand, logical and enables a user to perform an action in an intuitive manner.